With about 20,000 homes and businesses still without electricity in the Rio Grande Valley, according to the AEP Texas Outage Map. 

AEP Texas crews are now working to restore power after getting the go ahead from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

The state would not allow local repairs on the ground until Thursday over safety concerns.

Power restoration continues into the evening, generation holding steady: https://t.co/xAFVChsBYi

— ERCOT (@ERCOT_ISO) February 19, 2021

“During an ERCOT-issued controlled outage, crews are pretty much forced to stand down, and wait for the outages to be called off by ERCOT,” AEP Texas spokesman Eladio Jaimez said. “Our crews have not had an opportunity before this morning to patrol the lines and patrol the equipment.”

Jaimez says circuits that supply neighborhoods, lots and blocks were switching off and on as ERCOT was working to keep the grid from overall failure.

That off and on was a danger to the crews.

More homes are expected to get turned back on. The public is also urged to unplug appliances if you’re still in the dark to avoid problems when the lights turn back on as the power restoration can cause a power surge that will fry the appliance.